Richborough Power Station is a former power station close to the mouth of the River Stour

River Stour, Kent

The River Stour is the river in Kent, England that flows into the English Channel at Pegwell Bay. Above Plucks Gutter, where the Little Stour joins it, the river is normally known as the Great Stour. The upper section of the river, above its confluence with the East Stour at Ashford is sometimes...

 near Sandwich

Sandwich, Kent

Sandwich is a historic town and civil parish on the River Stour in the Non-metropolitan district of Dover, within the ceremonial county of Kent, south-east England. It has a population of 6,800....

, on the east coast of Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

. It was built on land within the Port of Richborough

Richborough

Richborough is a settlement north of Sandwich on the east coast of the county of Kent, England. Richborough lies close to the Isle of Thanet....

 but being on the northern edge is mostly within the neighbouring parish of Minster, Kent.

The power station can be seen in several scenes of the 2008 film Son of Rambow

Son of Rambow

Son of Rambow is a 2008 comedy-drama film written and directed by Garth Jennings. The film premiered January 22, 2007 at the Sundance Film Festival. It was later shown at the Newport Beach Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and Glasgow Film...

, and was the location for the 2003 Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 television series Full Metal Challenge

Full Metal Challenge

Full Metal Challenge was a television series made by RDF Media for Channel 4 in the UK and the Learning Channel in the USA. Hosted by series creator Cathy Rogers and Henry Rollins, the show was very similar to Rogers' last show, Scrapheap Challenge...

.

The Power Station is meant to be demolished in September 2011.

History

The station opened in 1962, originally burning coal from the Kent coalfield

Kent coalfield

The Kent Coalfield was a coalfield located in the eastern part of the English county of Kent.Coal was discovered in the area in 1890 while borings for an early Channel Tunnel project were taking place and the resultant Shakespeare colliery lasted until 1915...

. It was converted to burn oil in 1971. In 1989 it was converted to burn Orimulsion

Orimulsion

Orimulsion is a registered trademark name for a bitumen-based fuel that was developed for industrial use by Intevep, the Research and Development Affiliate of Petroleos de Venezuela SA , following earlier collaboration on oil emulsions with British Petroleum.-Source of the bitumen:Like coal and...

 imported through Port Richborough. After growing concerns over the environmental effects of the fuel, leading to court cases, the 360MW station ceased generating in 1996.

Permission for an experimental 1MW wind turbine at the site was given in 1987. There are plans to link the offshore Thanet Wind Farm to the existing grid station at the power station site.